Some thoughts on Prayer

Pastor Brooks on his sermon on Colossians 4:2 gave some good advice on prayer.

Colossians 4:2
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

His comments on the phrase "continue steadfastly on prayer" reminded me of the passage in 1 Thessalonians on prayer.

1 Thessalonians 5:15-18
See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

The phrase for "pray without ceasing" differs a little in emphasis than "Continue steadfastly in prayer." The greek word for "without ceasing" is "ἀδιαλείπτως." Thayer's Greek Lexicon defines it as "without intermission, incessantly, assiduously." Rienecker's Linguistic Key gives some good examples of how the word was used in the 1st Century:

without interruption, unceasingly, constantly. The word was used of that which was continually and repeatedly done; e.g., the uninterrupted necessary payment of hard taxes; the continual service or minstry of an official; a continual uninterrupted cough (Preisigke; MM); repeated military attacks... (p. 257-258, Rienecker, "Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament)

To focus on one example, the word ἀδιαλείπτως was used for a "continual, persistent cough." I had asthmatic bronchitus when I was a child. I was always catching colds and the flu. It seemed to me that at times that I had a persistent, hacking, cough for most of the winter nights of my childhood. Coughing was always present with me. It was almost as natural to me as breathing. Prayer should not be annoying, but it should be that natural and constant.

Leon Morris, in his commentary on 1 Thess. 5:5-18, explains how we are to live in a prayerful manner.

Leon Morris
Prayer is fellowship with God. Prayer is the realization of the presence of our Father. Though it is quite impossible for us always to be uttering the words of prayer, it is possible and necessary that we should always be living in the spirit of prayer.

But believers who live in this way, conscious continually of their dependence on God, conscious of his presence with them always, find that their general spirit of prayerfulness in the most natural way overflows into uttered prayer. Again and again in Paul's letters (and especially in the two letters to the Thessalonians) the apostle interjects little prayers into his argument. Prayer was as natural to Paul as breathing. At any time he was likely to break off his argument or to sum it up by a prayer. In the same way he looks for the Thessalonians to live lives with such an attitude of dependence on God that they will easily and naturally move into the words of prayer on all sorts of occasions, great and small, grave and festive. Prayer is to be constant. This does not, of course, mean that they are to spend all their time in uttering words of prayer; throughout these letters there are too many exhortations to be active in daily affairs for that to be accepted. Paul is arguing for lives lived constantly in a prayerful spirit. (pp. 173-176, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians (The New International Commentary on the New Testament))

I will finish this blog post by quoting Richard Phillips about Donald Barnhouse, a great evangelical preacher, who exemplified a life of prayer. This snippet from Barnhouse's life both illustrates the teaching of both Colossians and 1st Thessalonians about prayer.

Richard Phillips
Donald Grey Barnhouse was one who set an example of combining gospel preaching with humble prayer. He often could be found in the sanctuary on Saturdays, kneeling beside each pew, thinking about the people who often sat there, and asking God to bless them with the following day's sermon.” (Jesus the Evangelist: Learning to Share the Gospel from the Book of John)